Rodney Emmert told investigators that his wife unbuckled her
seat belt at about 3 p.m. Tuesday to pick up something from the
car’s floorboard. When she couldn’t reach it, Rodney Emmert
unbuckled his seat belt while Laureen Emmert steered, the release
said.

Set at a cruise control speed of about 75 mph, the Hyundai
drifted off I-90 about eight miles south of Sheridan and went
airborne, crashed into a stand of trees and hit a concrete culvert
before landing in deep mud.

Townsend said nobody saw the crash.

When the Emmerts didn’t arrive in Colorado, relatives tried
calling them and eventually reached Rodney Emmert, who on Wednesday
morning, told them “south of Sheridan, need help, send helicopter”
before the phone cut out, Townsend wrote.

About 21 hours after the crash, at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, a
construction worker noticed the top of the Emmerts’ car in a deep
ravine off the side of the road.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Laureen Emmert was alive after
the crash or died sometime after. Rodney Emmert was taken to
Sheridan Memorial Hospital in Sheridan, Wyo.

Vacation photographs often capture perfect moments in favorite places. Send us your best ones by July 16 for a chance to win up to $1,000 in our Destinations Photo Contest. The top photographs submitted will also be featured in a national publication reaching more than 1 million households.